impatient, Oswald; it is growing dark, and terribly cold, and my mother has fallen asleep over her spinning; if she should awake and miss me, it would frighten her sadly. Indeed, Oswald, I dare not come out." "Oh! come, dear Elly, come, if it is only for one moment," said Oswald; "I cannot go away without speaking to you." "But why cannot you come in the day-time, Oswald ?" said the timid girl, as she cautiously opened the door. "Dear Elly, I have had to fetch a sledgefull of wood, and this has kept me in the forest till evening, or else I should have been here sooner,” replied he. "But I could not pass by, and I cannot sleep in peace, till you have told me what has set you against me. My heart is ready to break. For the last fortnight you have been quite changed to me." "Yes, Oswald," said Elly, with a sigh, "I have many thoughts that make me very sad, and I know it is very wrong of me to listen to you when you say that you love me, and that you wish to marry me. Your father will never hear of such a thing, and you know you are bound to obey him." "Oh! but if you are not changed," said Oswald, "I am sure it may be brought about." "I am not changed, Oswald, in what I feel towards you," answered the innocent girl; “but ever since Christmas, I see things quite differently, and I am sure no good can come of it, unless we leave off thinking of each other." "Never in my

life will I leave off thinking of you, Elly. my wife, or no other will I have," replied

You shall be

Oswald, fer

vently. "But why have you had such troublesome thoughts since Christmas? Have you been confessing to the chaplain, and did he say we were walking in the ways of unrighteousness?" "No, Oswald, he did not say so," answered Elly, "but it is true enough that I have confessed, and asked him for advice. Then he told me, that it is not well done when a child engages himself without the consent of his parents; that your father looks high, and would never bestow his only son upon the daughter of a poor widow, who has but a single cow upon the Alp; and that I ought to banish all thoughts of such a thing from my mind, and take care that I do not fall so as never to rise up again. I had nothing to say against all this, for I have long been afraid that it was very sinful in us to meet so often by stealth, since I am only the child of a poor person, and you are the son of the rich Bathönier, who owns half the Alp, and who has such different plans for you. You do not tell me half the things that he says to you about me; but I know more of them than you think of.".. "You knew all that in the summer, Elly," answered Oswald, "and you know now, that I have sworn, by all the saints in heaven, to be faithful to you my whole life long." "Oh yes, that is all true; but hear the rest," replied Elly. "On Christmas eve, after confession, I prayed earnestly in the chapel, to the Holy Mother of God, that she would grant me strength of mind to forget you, or else that she would incline your father's heart to be kind

to us; and I made a vow, if ever I should become your wife, to go on a pilgrimage to our Lady of Einsiedlen, in the land of Schwytz. When I had done praying, I felt my mind easier; and I staid there, kneeling and thinking about you, till it grew dusk, and I was left quite alone in the chapel. I could have staid there all night long; and I went away unwillingly and slowly, and with my thoughts still bent upon you. But as I came to the corner, by Enderlis's house, Holy Mother! how frightened was I to see before me a tall, white, upright 'What is figure, standing there, quite immoveable! that?' cried I, with a loud scream; and no sooner were the words out of my mouth, than the figure sank down on the ground. Directly after, I heard a loud laugh in the house, and then I found that the neighbour's children had been making a snow man, and that this was what I had been so foolishly afraid of. But in the night I had a dream, and I thought that I was walking alone with you by the pale moonlight, behind the Glebbwand, up to the Flescherthar*. I held you fast, for I was afraid of my foot slipping; but on a sudden quite still and stiff, and turned as cold as ice. What is the matter, Oswald?' I cried out, but you spoke and I heard a voice behind me, which said,

word;

you

stood there,

not a

A steep path leads up from the Flescher Alp to a wild, narrow hollow, formed by a ravine between the Glebbwand and It is called the Flescherthal, and contains

the Granspitzen.

three little lakes.

This is what you will both come to, if you persist in having Bathönier, against his father's will.' I turned round, and there I saw the chaplain of Mayenfield in his black cowl; and when I looked at you again, you were quite white, and your eyes were hollow; and then I thought the snowy earth opened, and you sank down deeper and deeper, and I with you; and a thick vapour covered us both, and I heard something in my ears like the chiming of bells, till the sound grew fainter and fainter, and at last died away. Then my mother called me, and shook me; Elly, cried she, what is the matter?-you have been groaning as if you were dying.' And when I awoke from my dream, I shivered all over with cold and fright. I sat up in bed, and looked all about me, as if I was bewildered; and though the moon shone as bright as day, I could scarcely persuade myself that I was in a room, and not in the Flescherthal. 'You have had a troubled dream, my poor child,' said my mother; you have been calling for Oswald, and it is a sad thing that he should be in your thoughts when you are asleep, for he can never be yours; so it is better that you should think no more of one another.' This was what the good mother said; and when she found that nothing more was the matter with me, she soon fell asleep again. But I could sleep no more that night, and I wept long and bitterly. Ever since that time, the dream has never been out of my mind; and if my mother could do without me, and I had any thing to put into the

you

feel

poor's-box, I would gladly go into a convent, since I must give up all thoughts of ever having you in this world." "And is this all that has made you unhappy?" "Dear Elly, you must cried Oswald, with a joyful air. not be so childish. The chaplain talked to you as he thought it his duty to do; but he need not have warned you to beware of me, for I mean nothing but what is right and fair. It would have been better if he had talked to my father, and advised him not to look any higher; but be content to give me to the daughter of a brave confederate, who died the death of a hero, and left a fair fame behind him, though he had no gold nor goods to bequeath. The chaplain, first of all, made uneasy, and then the snow man came before you in your dream, and that was the whole of the matter. But I know a way of settling things. I will tell my father this very night, that 1 am determined either to have you for a wife, or else to go out into the world and seek my fortune. Since he lost my brother, who was killed nine years ago, he cannot manage his affairs without me; and supposing it should come to that, if I only knew you would be constant to me, even if I should be away more than a twelvemonth, what would it signify? for by that time he would be sure to send for me home again. But things will not go so far as this, so do not be cast down, my dear Elly. Before the snow is melted that the children made their bogle of, you shall be my own betrothed bride."

Poor Elly in vain attempted to dry her tears,